What is Food Crime?

By Kate Cooper

photo by Graeme Braidwood

The first time I ever heard the phrase ‘food crime’ was from Professor Chris Elliott. He’d been commissioned by the Government to investigate our food supply network after the ‘Horsegate’ scandal, and he’d asked to see me because of The New Optimists work with scientists.

Continue reading “Birmingham helping lead the way in tackling food crime.”

Last night Birmingham Food Council held an event to look at what’s happening in Birmingham following on from the release of The Elliott Report, The report commissioned in response the horse meat scandal.

This is the updated Elliott Review Birmingham report. We’ve added in references to the final Elliott Report, which was published only last Thursday.

After the workshop we co-hosted with the Elliott Review Team last April, Birmingham made specific offers, as outlined in section 2 of our report (pages 4-5). These are replicated in full in the final Elliott Report (annex N).

The Elliott Review was set up by HM Government in response to the horsemeat scandal; they asked the Prof to lead it. A great choice; he’s Director of the Global Food Safety Institute as well as a top-notch molecular bioscientist.

The Prof asked us to help him and his Review team draw a case study of how a major UK city could tackle food crime for inclusion in their final Report.

Final thoughts from The Elliott Review in Birmingham from Professor Chris Elliott and Kate Cooper, founder of The New Optimists…

Professor Chris Elliott said the mixture of people at the event in Birmingham today was quite phenomenal. There have been 200 meetings as part of the review – this has been the most interesting, he said, with lots of examples of the complex difficulties faced in addressing the issues concerned with food crime.

Continue reading “#BrumElliott – Reflections on the day from Chris Elliott”

Chris Elliot at the New optimists contribution to his review of food crime in the uk

“I’ve had 200 meetings so far – this has been the most interesting.” was what Professor Chris Elliot told the room at the end of today’s New Optimist session on the Elliot Review. We’d spent the day talking about how a major city can tackle food crime.

Continue reading “Chris Elliott of the Elliott Review – why Birmingham can make a difference”